The Last Flannelled Fool: My Small Part in English Cricket's Demise and its Large Part in Mine - Softcover

Simkins, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091927544 ISBN 13: 9780091927547

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2011

Synopsis

Michael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer—passionate, obsessive, technically inept, and hopelessly deluded. When an injury rules him out of an entire season, not only might it spell the end of his long career, he is faced more immediately with a summer aimlessly wandering garden centers and listening to The Archers. He decides instead to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England in search of that golden time in his youth when his passion for the game was first kindled. It’s a journey that begins in May in light drizzle at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favorite ground (now a Marks & Spencer), and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith—returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd. So can cricket still bring comfort and meaning to his life or is Old Father Time about to call for Michael’s bails?

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Simkins has appeared in more than 70 plays, with stage highlights that include A View from the Bridge at the National Theatre as well as musicals Chicago and Mamma Mia. He also directed Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends at the Greenwich Theatre. He has made countless TV appearances, with recent credits that include Foyle's War and My Family, as well as turns on the silver screen in such films as Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy; and has worked with luminaries as diverse as Anthony Perkins, John Malkovich, Michael Gambon, and Buster Merryfield.

Review:

"One of those rambling, picaresque, unashamedly nostalgic travel books that so enliven a summer afternoon... funny, crafty and written with extraordinary verve" * Mail on Sunday * "A funny, well-observed obituary of English cricket's eccentric soul" * Telegraph * "A book you're certain to love" -- James Walton * Daily Mail * "An amiable, sharp-eyed companion" * Independent * "Hugely entertaining" * We Love This Book *

About this edition

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0091927544
• ISBN 13: 9780091927547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320